Hey guys, I'm looking at reformatting my netbook, I have restore discs, but the product key has rubbed off of the bottom of my net book, is there a way to check it within windows before I run the restore?

Alright, I downloaded Magic Jelly Bean, but the key it gives me isn't even close to the key that's silk screened on to the bottom of the netbook. Is that common to have a different key on the sticker than what they used at the factory?

The key that you obtained using Magic jelly bean is the Product Key for the Windows Vista OS currently installed in your netbook. And since you said too that COA(certificate of Authenticity) sticker at the bottom of your netbook was "rubbed-off" then probably what you are reading on that sticker is the PID(product id) which is entirely different from the Product Key. What Magic Jelly Bean displayed is your Product Key!

I got it all worked out now, I was able to decipher the couple of letters that were rubbed off. At first it wouldn't activate and I thought it was because I typed it in wrong, so I tried other combinations of what the letter COULD HAVE been, but only one would be allowed. Eventually I had to call Microsoft and manually activate it because their servers are stupid.
Thanks for the help, guys!